Someone To Die For
by Safaia
Summary: On a new job and Ariadne is once again building impossible things when something goes wrong. And now she's trapped in a catch-22 with Arthur with everything on the line.  Post-Movie Spoilers  Movie   to Chris Nolan Lyrics   Jimmy Gnecco feat. Brian May


**Someone To Die For**

_Before you landed  
I had a will but didn't know what it could do  
You were abandoned  
And still you're handing out what you don't wanna lose  
You make me drop things  
Like all the plans I had for a life without you _

When the job was over Ariadne was hardly surprised that she did not hear or see any of her co-workers. In that time she caught the headline of a paper reading that Fischer had dissolved his father's empire like Saito wanted. The knowledge that they were responsible for that was confusing. In one sense it brought a sense of accomplishment and almost arrogance that she was part of that decision. Then again those feelings were followed by guilt and Ariadne was not sure which was she should be more afraid of. After nearly a week of not even seeing any of her comrades in LA Ariadne decided it was time to go back to Paris. There was nothing holding her back in America really; she had the funds to go back home and the idea of visiting family made her eyes nearly roll into the back of her skull. She left the states for a reason and confronting those reasons was not exactly high on her to do list.

The flight from LA to New York was a long and boring one. All Ariadne could think about was how in the dream scape she could be bending and breaking the very laws of physics and not sitting on a plane. Over and over she knocked the bishop over onto her tray table and ignored any dark glances from her fellow first class passengers. This world, she decided, seemed too dull to be a dream. The excitement of the dreamworld was the only thing that seemed like the only thing that would satisfy her now. It was only one that plane ride that Ariadne thought about Arthur for the first time and it made her smile. He was coy and the kiss he stole from her on the job was somewhere between arrogant and adorable. She just knew that he was off somewhere in his perfectly tailored suits looking up every detail of someone's life.

JFK was bustling with people and Ariadne had to push through crowds of impatient New Yorker's to try and get to her flight before something made her stop short. Out of the corner of her eye was sure she saw Arthur watching her before vanishing from sight. It was something he was good at she came to realize in their time together. The man had perfected the ability to, for lack of better terms, vanish. Narrowing her eyes and looking around again Ariadne accepted that even if it was Arthur there was no way she was going to find him in this crowd unless he wanted her to. A businessmen nearly knocked her to the ground, cursed loudly at her apparent incompetence, before moving along. Ariadne looked around one last time before continuing to her terminal and boarding the next flight to Paris.

This time she spent drawing mazes like the one's Cobb had her do when he was testing her. One by one she drew again and again each one getting more detailed than the other. After a while Ariadne began to draw entire dreams on paper coming up with places for paradox's and places that the team could hide in no matter who was chasing them. The Fischer job taught her that no matter who the mark was she should prepare the levels as if they were going against a trained mind. No matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise somewhere in the back of her mind Ariadne felt somehow responsible. If she had designed better levels then maybe things would have gone better. The next time, if there was to be one, she was going to do better.

The first place Ariadne went was to see Miles. It was easy to find him in his lecture hall surrounded by books and papers. When she closed the door he looked up and smiled at her. "I was wondering if you were going to come back."

"While I might be wealthy money doesn't last forever," she said dropping her bag and sitting down in front row. "And I don't like to leave things half finished anyway."

"I know you don't," Miles replied closing a book before watching her carefully. "I'm assuming you're looking for a roundabout way to ask how Cobb is doing."

"More of less." Ariadne confessed, "Though if something had done terribly wrong you either would not be here or you would have told me by now."

"True, you always did have a knack for figuring things like that out. He's doing well and I don't think I've ever seen him or those kids happier," he said. "So, who did Cobb end up getting to work with him? I'm assuming Arthur was there since Arthur seems to always be there. Who else?" Ariadne spent the next hour or so giving Miles the general details of what the mission was like without saying actual specifics. His expression went a little dark when she told him that Cobb took her into the dreams but she waved him off saying that she was fine, everyone was fine, and that was all that mattered. The two of them walked to the registration office so she could sign up for the last of her classes. When the words "internship" came up Ariadne almost groaned. She could design entire cities; why would she want to waste her time looking over the shoulder of someone who could barely design a building? Miles did not seem surprised by her reluctance either and assured her that if her portfolio was impressive enough, which he assured her it would be, she could skip the internship and go straight to work.

So life seemed to be normal again. Ariadne got up, went to classes, came up, studied and then went to bed. It was a routine that was normal for any other person, and she felt arrogant to even think it, that she was not normal. Once again her nights were filled with knocking her totem over again and again waiting for something to change and she could go break physics and build entire worlds again. All of her friends had more or less abandoned her after she turned down invitation after invitation to go out and be social. School had turned her into a recluse but now she had upgraded to full on hermit. Everything seemed so mundane and Ariadne found herself wishing she could step out of reality and experience it all over again.

It was on a particularly boring evening of drawing yet another level that her phone ringing made Ariadne nearly jump out of skin. Picking up the ringing phone she creased her eyebrows when "unknown name" flashed back at her. "Hello?"

"Ariadne." Instantly she knew that voice and it made her smile.

"Arthur, I was wondering if I was ever going to hear from you again," she said putting down her pen.

"Yes, we had to make sure all of our tracks were covered before we could establish contact," he replied and Ariadne rolled her eyes; it was such an Arthur thing to say.

"So do what do I owe the pleasure?" She asked.

"I have a potential job and I was wondering if you were interested." Arthur said and the thought of building cities and worlds and watching them unfold before her eyes made Ariadne's heart race.

"Is it just you or do you have more people on the team?" She asked.

"Eames said he was interested and that he hoped the Fischer job helped 'pull my head out of my ass' or something to that effect. Yusuf said that unless we needed specific chemicals that he was going to sit this one out. And Cobb" Arthur paused "is actual interested." That bit of information nearly knocked Ariadne out of her chair.

"He kept insisting that this was his last job. What made him change his mind?" She asked and there was an uncomfortable silence.

"The same reason we all keep going back; there's nothing like it," and that was all that needed to be said. "As of right now Eames is out making contacts and Cobb is staying out of things as much as he can. So it's just you and me for now if you're willing to be our architect again. Would you be willing to meet up somewhere so we can start building levels?" Ariadne wanted to tell him that she already had a dozen levels mapped out and ready to be built but using any of them before hearing about the mark yet. For a moment she thought about school and how she would be throwing away yet another set of credits with incompletes. She thought about how every logical bone in her body told her that she needed to stay in reality, that is what matters, not something fleeting and fake. "Ariadne?"

"I'm still here." she said, "Meeting up sounds like a great idea. Just tell me where and when and I'll be there."

"Perfect. I'll need you to fly to London if possible. If I can avoid it I don't like planning in the same city," Arthur said.

"I'll be on the next flight." Ariadne replied.

"I'll meet you at the airport," and the line went dead. Ariadne closed the phone and released a breath. Without wasting a moment she began to pack a few sets of clothes, warmer ones since this was London after all, and nearly stuffed an individual bag with papers and notebooks. After a brief conversation with Miles, he did not sound surprised at all, he agreed to mark his course as an incomplete yet again. Her other two were just canon fodder courses she needed to graduate and she hoped a phone call would be enough to switch them to incompletes. If not Ariadne really did not care either way. After purchasing a ticket, getting a few hours of sleep before her flight and locking up her apartment she walked down the stairs and out into the fall air. As she flagged down a taxi Ariadne could not stop smiling.

The entire plane she was somewhere between "excited" and "giddy." The thought of going into the dream world again was enough to keep her awake even after getting almost no sleep. Looking out the window the skyline of Big Ben and everything that came with London scenery. After a particularly rough landing Ariadne carried her two bags through the airport and just took in the scenery. After passing through the gates she saw Arthur standing waiting for her. His hair was slicked back and his suit was neatly pressed as usual. She really did not expect anything less from him. As she approached Ariadne realized she had no idea how to greet him. Friendly nod? They had been through too much together for that. Hug? Too personal. Handshake? Too professional. Fortunately for her Arthur seemed to have his own plans in mind when he greeted with a "nice to meet you" and then offered to take her bags like a perfect gentlemen. And to bother him just a little Ariadne only let him take one.

Ariadne expected Arthur to get straight to work but the first place they pulled up was a grand hotel in the middle of downtown London. He thanked the cab they had taken and paid before watching her carefully.

"We need to drop off your things. From there we can take the underground to where we need to go," he explained before heading into the hotel.

"Don't I need to check in?" She asked following him. Arthur shook his head as he waited for the elevator.

"I took care of that already under a false name of course," he replied without missing a beat. Ariadne was hardly surprised and was even less surprised when she opened the door to the room and found it had a perfect view of downtown London and all of the scenery. "I thought you would like the view," he said putting down her bag. Smiling she turned and nodded.

"Yes, I do, thanks." Ariadne said keeping her bag with her drawings on her shoulder. There was a moment of silence before Arthur cleared his throat and straightened his tie.

"Well, we should be off," he said before standing aside to let her pass. He passed her a room key and the two of them headed down to the lobby. Without hesitating at all she watched as he walked down to the subway that was beneath the city.

"Don't you want to rent a cab or a car?" Ariadne asked walking a little faster to keep up with him.

"Cars are too easy to trace and cab drivers tend to have very good memories. Public transportation, especially in a city like this one, is the best way to keep from getting noticed. Just make your way through and keep your head down," he said.

"Yes, because a guy in a perfectly tailored suit riding the underground isn't obvious at all," she said sarcastically and Arthur rolled his eyes at her.

"Very funny." The two of them got on the trains and made their way across the city. To her surprise there were more people dressed like Arthur than she expected. London, much like New York and other big cities she guessed, locals rarely use cars and just get around using public transportation. When they emerged Ariadne studied her surrounding before Arthur stopped in front of a old looking building before he unlocked a door pushing it open. Climbing up a few sets of stairs he opened the door and revealed that the entire top floor was just a big open room with lots of windows. There was already a desk with a light on it, for him she guessed, and a big open table with lots of lights for her. In the middle of the room were two lawn chairs and a table in between. As soon as he closed the door she knew he was all business now.

For the next few hours Arthur explained their job and went over every detail that he knew so far. The mark was a judge named Hamilton that seemed to have a knack for letting members of organized crime off with warnings or finding ways of letting them slip through the cracks. An officer at Scotland Yard hired them to take a look in this judges head to see if there was anything they could get on him to end this cycle. The way he explained it sounded simple enough but the judge was someone who would be prepared for an assault so they would be dealing with militarized projections. Arthur told her that his intelligence on that was not 100% but he wanted them to plan as if it was the case. Ariadne agreed that it was the best solution before opening her bag and showing him some of her designs.

"I'm impressed," he said after a little while leaning against the table and looking down at the mass of papers.

"I'm sure you are," Ariadne deadpanned but when she looked up at him he was giving her a serious look.

"No, really, I am. It looks like you did the same thing I did after the Fischer job; unless you are 100% sure someone has not had training you should go in expecting it. We got lucky with Fischer but next time we might not be." Arthur said nodding and standing. "I'm going to do some more research. For now just build a general levels and mazes and we can go from there." Without saying much more he walked over and sat at his desk and began to sift through a mountain of papers. Ariadne watched him for a moment before smiling feeling proud of herself for impressing him.

_Someone to die for  
Someone to fall into when the world goes dark  
Someone to die for  
Someone to tear a hole in this endless night  
Someone like you _

The next few days were more of the same. Eames got in contact with them and said that he found the judge vacationing on the Italian Riviera and it would take a few days of beach talk amongst personal and what not to create a level that the judge would believe. He suggested something that would relax the judge and make him think he was on vacation. Ariadne spent a better part of the day rolling ideas over and over in her head.

"A beach or a beach town would be too open," she mused out loud after a long silence. Arthur looked up from his paperwork.

"This is true but it sounds like the judge likes exotic places so really anywhere that feels exotic will go over well. We just have to make sure it isn't too over the top. We don't exactly want the words "this is too good to be true" to be uttered," he said and Ariadne nodded before looking over her mazes some more. She tried to come up something she liked but nothing seemed to be coming to her. Rubbing her temples Ariadne looked out side and sighed as the sun dipped behind the horizon. "There's no point into working into the night." Arthur said turning off his light, "It's not like we can move forward or anything; we're still waiting on Eames."

"Right, no need to burn the midnight oil if we don't need to," Ariadne agreed organizing her desk and packing up her things. Arthur waited for her at the door and the two of them walked down the stairs until they emerged out onto the streets. As if the neighborhood was not sketchy during the day it seemed even worse at night. It was a good location in the sense that they would not be bothered but it also made going home late at night a challenge. Slipping her hands into the pockets of her sweatshirt Ariadne walked with Arthur down the streets. A light rain was falling and it was getting colder at the season turned into winter. "What do you want to do for dinner?" She asked suddenly and Arthur blinked at her.

"Oh, I guess I hadn't thought of that. It's your turn to pick, right? I picked last night," he said.

"Yes, we went to that overpriced restaurant with food that ended up being mediocre at best. Hope that bill was worth it by the way," Ariadne said smiling and Arthur sighed heavily.

"Yes, yes, it was a mistake. Last time I take the word of a bell boy. So what do you want?" he asked.

"How about some street vendor fish and chips and a few good beers," she said and the look on Arthur's face was priceless. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No, no, not at all. Sounds like a plan," they rounded a corner to a particular crowded street and cars passing by, "I'm assuming a vendor outside the hotel would be too pristine for this endeavor-"

"-it would be-"

"So I'm just going to find something here and take it back to the hotel. Flag a cab, okay? I don't want you to ride the underground after dark alone," Arthur said before giving her a sideways glance, "and will you do it if I say "please" since I know you don't want to."

"Fine, if you insist then I'll take a cab." Ariadne replied and he nodded.

"I'll be back in less than an hour. There have to be some street vendors around here somewhere that will meet your expectations," he said and she smiled warmly at him. He returned it with a small smile that seemed to give away nothing before heading down the streets. Ariadne watched him for a moment before continuing down the street some more. She got some strange looks from those around her but she chose to ignore them. A busier road was just around the corner and it would be easy to flag a cab down from there. As she turned the corner a hand grabbed her arm and twisted it painfully behind her back and another clamped over her mouth.

"You scream and you're dead," a voice behind her said before he eased her out of the light of the streetlamps. Ariadne wanted to fight and scream or at least find out what this person wanted. She had fifty pounds in her wallet that she could give him and not really care either way. It was not until she saw him dragging her to an open van that she really started to get scared. When he pushed her into the van and she saw three other men waiting. The flash of guns made Ariadne bite her tongue when the man removed his hand from her mouth and pushed her in the van. The first thing she wanted to do was reach in her pocket and clutch her totem to see if it was a dream. "I know what you're thinking," the man said as he sat in the van and it sped off. "And I can assure you; this is not a dream." No words in her entire life had made Ariadne's stomach drop the way those did.

She kept her mouth shut and the men seemed to ignore her, more or less, as they drove around few corners. Ariadne knew that they were in the same neighborhood as the headquarters but this was further away and when the doors slid open it was even sketchier. "You know the drill," the man said showing a flash of the gun in his hand. Swallowing and trying to slow her breathing she started up the stairs to the abandoned building. She must have been going too close because one of them took her arm and began to drag her up to the top floor. When they shoved her into an open room Ariadne blinked back surprise to see two chairs in the middle of the room with two tubes on each one and a machine in the middle. Things suddenly made no sense.

"Drop your bag," one of the men ordered and Ariadne did as she was told. All fell silent as they seemed to be waiting for something. In the meantime she began to take in the surroundings. The man who had taken her from the alley and who had done most of the talking was dressed in all back with leather gloves on his hands. She could see a holster and gun on his hip with another hidden in the back of his pants and he carried a wave of authority about him. The others looked similar but they did not seem as armed as this man was. Whoever these men were they were trained and they knew who she was. Ariadne heard them talk a bit amongst themselves and heard that the leaders name was Mitch. Were they connected to Fischer in some way? Had Saito sold them out? It seemed unlikely after the risk Cobb took to bring him back from limbo. The only other people it could be was Cobolt, the company that Arthur and Cobb took the job from before the inception, or the judge somehow caught wind of what they were up to. Either one, she decided, was not going to end well. "Ah, there we are. I think it's time to get this party started." The door burst open and two more of the men dragged in a disheveled Arthur. His clothes were dirty and the corner of his mouth was split. When he saw her across the room he started to struggle a bit more but the men held him steady.

"This one put up a fight," one said and he had what looked to the beginnings of a black eye. The other looked like his nose was broken.

"Yes, well, we all fight until something is on the line," Mitch pulled pulled out his gun and pointed it directly at Ariadne as another held her tightly by the arm. "Does this even need to be said?" Arthur stopped struggling and stood completely still his features giving away nothing. "That's more like it. Gentlemen, let's make our guests more comfortable." Ariadne was dragged over to one of the chairs and was forced to sit down before they tied her hands to the arms of the chair. They did the same to Arthur and she saw something in his eyes that she had never seen before; rage. "All right, well, it seems as if we're all together now so I think it's time to get this show on the road." Mitch said.

"What is going on?" Arthur asked in a hard and short voice.

"You dreamers are like a hunter seeking out prey. You obsess over how you are going to catch them and plan it for weeks at a time. It's all more or less perfect before you go in and make a killing strike. In this sense the strike is stealing information within someone's mind." Mitch smiled, "Judge Hamilton thinks it would be fun if those roles are reversed. Now it's time for the hunters to be the hunted, in so many words, and where is it more fun to hunt than in a dream?"

"You're going to hunt us in a dream?" Ariadne asked her eyes widening.

"Something like that. Here are the rules; as you both know pain feels very real in dreams. The only way to get out of a dream before the timer is up is to kill yourself. Here is the catch in the game we're playing; if you kill yourself or get killed in the dream and you wake up here we are going to kill you. Simple as that; you stay alive in the dream or you die in reality."

"You can hunt me all you want you need to let Ariadne go. This has nothing to do with her; she is just the architect and I'm the one who took the job. She hardly knows anything so just let her go," Arthur said lying effortlessly.

"Noble but I'm afraid it won't work. You are the fighter and that makes her canon fodder. So now not only are you trying to keep yourself alive now you're going to have to protect her as well." Mitch said as he and three other men pulled open the tubes getting things ready. Ariadne wanted to disagree and say that she was not canon fodder and could protect herself but she knew she couldn't. As they shoved the needle into her arm none too gently she looked over at Arthur and he nodded making it the barest of movements. The sound of the device turning on and Ariadne drifted off into nothing.

She was standing in a city though it seemed as if the city was inhabited by no one. There were projections but it seemed like they were behind a thick plane of glass. Ariadne's heart began to pound as she began to walk the streets. Mitch was the dreamer, she guessed, and he had someone build him a level. Ariadne could see the paradox's and the endless mazes in twists and turns. They had prepared for this and that thought made her feel a little ill.

The sound a gunshot made Ariadne turn on her heals only see Arthur sprinting toward her. Without saying anything he took her hand and they began to run. The sound of gunfire was still behind them but Arthur was taking twists and turns and trying to lose their pursuers. He pressed himself against one of the walls and took deep breaths. There was a graze on his arm and Ariadne winced when she saw that it was bleeding.

"Someone built them this level," she said taking off her scarf and reaching over to tie it around Arthur's arm. He winced and looked down at her, "What? You're hurt and I'm allowed to help. I don't want to be canon fodder."

"You're not." Arthur said looking around the corner carefully, "You're just not trained in the way they think you are. You are trained a different way. You can look at this level and distinguish between a paradox or an endless loop," he paused. "Thank you for my arm."

"Don't mention it," Ariadne replied, "And even if I can spot those things they know this place as well as we know our own levels. We can't avoid them forever."

"I know and when we do I'll just have to fight back. They said we had to stay alive but they never mentioned that they had to," he said clutching a pistol tightly in hand. The two of them began to creep through the maze. One by one Mitch or someone else would pop out and take a shot at them but Arthur was always quick to counter. Ariadne nearly had her breath stolen away when her leg was grazed with a bullet. Arthur turned on Mitch with a vengeance managing to hit the other man square in the shoulder before he raced off. "Are you all right?" He asked.

"It hurts I'll tell you that much," Ariadne replied. Arthur ripped the bottom of his shirt and tied it tightly around the wound muttering "this is going to hurt" before tightening it and Ariadne nearly bit a hole through her tongue. Her limbs were beginning to ache and it seemed as if the real world was catching up with them. "Arthur, how long can we do this?" She looked up at him; they were eye level now as he knelt in front of her to tend to the wound.

"As long as need to, as long as we can. When Eames doesn't hear from us he'll call Cobb and they'll come looking. All we can do is hope that either they find us before time runs out or before we get killed in either world." Arthur said though he did not sound so certain. Mitch had left out what happened if time had simply run out but they could be under for hours and it could be days before the clock hit zero in reality. They continued to fight their way through the maze and avoiding Mitch and his partners but they seemed to boxing them in. While Arthur looked around a corner one of Mitch's henchmen managed to sneak up behind Ariadne and grab by the throat before throwing her down to the ground. The motion nearly knocked the wind out of her and the look in the man's eyes was terrifying. The hand was gone in moments when Arthur kicked him off to the side and raised his fists looking terrifyingly angry. The man threw the first punch but Arthur blocked it easily. The two of them sparred for a moment neither landing a blow on the other before the man managed to punch Arthur in the ribs. The hit sent him off of his balance and it was all the man needed before landing a few hard punches that threw Arthur to the ground landing a sharp kick in his ribs.

"Looks like you aren't as impressive as everyone makes you sound," he said looking down at a dazed Arthur who was wincing painfully and spitting a little blood. "Looks like I win." And it was that arrogance that helped him fail to see Ariadne right behind him before she slammed the butt of Arthur's discarded gun into the back of his skull. He crumbled to the ground Ariadne knelt down in front of Arthur and knew that he was in a lot of pain.

"Come on, we need to keep moving," she said pulling him to his feet and struggling to help him walk. He was significantly taller and stronger than she was but nevertheless she tried as hard as she could to help him. After some time he seemed to collect himself and could walk on his own. Aside from some cuts, bruises and the graze on her leg Ariadne was unhurt. Arthur, however, looked like he had been through n a war zone. The wound on his shoulder seemed to be bleeding more steadily now and he was holding his ribs that some were broken. There was a deep cut on his cheek and his lip was badly split. She knew he was in pain and wanted nothing more than the end that pain.

"You know cracking someone's skull even in a dream must hurt like hell." Mitch said as they both turned around slowly. He was holding a gun pointed directly at Ariadne and smiling ever so slightly. "You've been doing much better than we thought you would, Arthur. So how about we take this variable out and we'll see how you fare when you're just fighting for your life." Everything seemed to slow down for a moment when the gun went off. Ariadne could only stand and close her eyes. She only hoped that when she woke up they would make it painless in reality. Opening her eyes she blinked back surprise when she saw Arthur standing in front of her. "How boring," Mitch said as Arthur fell to his knees clutching his stomach. "Interesting though because it's not a gunshot to the head so it won't be quick." Ariadne could barely think and moving faster than she thought she capable of she had Arthur's gun in hand. Mitch blinked back surprise when she fired hitting his square between the eyes. The dream began to crumble all around her and Ariadne knelt next to Arthur.

"You saved me, you took that bullet even though you knew you would die in reality," she whispered and he smiled at her.

"Of course I did," The gunshot and the wounds were too much and he went still in her arms. As the dream crumbled Ariadne picked up Mitch's gun and looked at it. Arthur had sacrificed himself so she would not have to die but now the dream was falling apart and she had to wake up. Closing her eyes Ariadne placed the gun to her head and pulled the trigger.

_I'm drunk when sober  
The room is spinning  
You are what I hold on to  
You're taking over  
I find that giving in is the best I can do_

A bright light was shinning in her eyes as she struggled to regain her breath. Looking around she saw Arthur looking very dazed in the other chair but very alive. Looking around Ariadne blinked back surprise to see Mitch and all of his men dead on the ground. Eames walked up and knelt down in front of her.

"Did you guys decide to take a vacation without me?" He asked grinning. Never before had she felt so relieved to see anyone in her entire life.

"How did you find us?" Ariadne asked as he untied her binds.

"I contacted Cobb when we figured out that something was wrong. I told him I had heard something interesting while I was studying Hamilton. There wasn't enough time for him to fly here to help and I was back in town so he pointed me in the right direction." Eames replied before taking the needle out of her arm and patting the wound. "What happened in there?"

"I'll tell you later," she replied before standing. Eames nodded before walking over and untying Arthur's bonds and making a comment about how he "looked like hell." Arthur rolled his eyes at Eames and stood trying to straighten himself despite looking a little shaken. Without another word the three of them left the abandoned home taking only the machine as they left.

Eames listened as Ariadne did most of the explaining about what happened. He listened carefully and said he did not like the idea of being hunted down in a dream only have death in the dream mean death in reality. Arthur grumbled an agreement but she too busy gripping her bishop now and she saw Arthur tossed his dice bath and forth from hand to hand. As they pulled up to the hotel in Eames' car Arthur made a call to the officer who had hired them and said that they had to abort the mission. Even through the phone Ariadne could hear some choice words being used before Arthur just hung up all together.

"That unit of yours needs to be cleaned out as soon as possible," Eames said. "You two look like you could use a serious nap so I'll take care of it."

"Oh, thanks Eames." Arthur said sounding a bit impressed.

"As always your faith in me is damn near unshakeable Arthur." The two of them exchanged small smiles before Eames turned and looked at Ariadne in the backseat. "You sleep well, darling. No bad dreams tonight."

"No bad dreams tonight," she echoed climbing out of the car. Eames waved them off before driving away. Ariadne followed Arthur up to the floor of the hotel in complete silence. When they got to her door he stopped and gave her a very forced smile as she opened the door.

"I'll leave you to rest." he said before turning to leave but Ariadne snatched his hand.

"Stay and let me buy you dinner," she said without missing a beat.

"But there is no-" Arthur stammered but Ariadne held up a hand to silence him.

"You took a bullet for me at least let me buy you some room service. This isn't up for negotiation," she said and all he could do was stare blankly at her before walking into her room. It took some serious nagging before Ariadne was able to get Arthur to actually decide on an entree. The food was brought up with a complimentary bottle of wine and they sat at the small table near the window. They did not speak of jobs or what had happened instead they talked about school and home, family and friends, and every in between. Arthur was reluctant at first but he seemed to open more and more as the night went on. And even more so as the bottle of wine got progressively emptier. Ariadne stretched her limbs feeling a little heavy from the wine.. "I'm afraid I have one other thing that I'm going to have to insist on and this isn't up for negotiation either."

"I have a feeling I'm not going to have much in the way of choices when it comes to you, right?" He asked giving her a small smile.

"Not really." Ariadne took his hand and walked them back toward the sitting room in her suit in front of a large TV. "Now since we had what could easily be described as a "bad day" I think we need to top off good food and excellent wine with a terrible movie."

"Now that makes perfect sense," Arthur said sitting down setting both of their wine glasses and the last of the bottle too.

"Yes, I agree, so I'm going to order a terrible movie and you're going to have to sit through it," she said.

"And it isn't up for negotiation?" he asked cracking a smile.

"You're catching on," Ariadne said flashing a smile. The terrible movie that they ended up choosing was a "romantic action-comedy" that was so disastrous that even Arthur was laughing when some of the more ridiculous scenes were played straight. With the bottle of wine now finished Ariadne felt truly relaxed for the first time since arriving in London. To say that she was "cuddling" with Arthur on that couch would have been stretch; they were sitting together and they were close enough that they were hip to hip and as the movie got more terrible Ariadne rested her head against his shoulder without even thinking about it. Toward the end she reached over and took his hand. Arthur looked at their hands and then at her before giving her a small smile. So she rested her cheek against his shoulder and intertwined their fingers for the rest of the terrible movie.

It was late by the time the credits ran and there was an uncomfortable moment when Ariadne knew one of them was going to move but neither of them wanted to be the first one. She also knew that Arthur was going to be the one obsessing about it more than she did. So she released his hand and stood stretching her hands high above her head. Arthur stood and seemed to try and regain whatever composure that bottle of wine had taken.

"It's late," he said before giving her a small smile, "and we need to figure out what our next move is going to be tomorrow. Hamilton isn't going to be happy we killed his henchmen."

"Well you won't have a problem have a problem vanishing. You're practically a professional at it." Ariadne replied and he laughed a bit. The two of them walked toward the door and Arthur opened it before looking back at her.

"Thank you for dinner and the terrible movie; I feel a lot better," he said.

"Me too," she said watching him for a moment before he turned to leave. Ariadne was not normally one to act on impulse so she surprised herself she took Arthur's hand and pulled himself a kiss. In that moment she was not sure who was more surprised by it. When she broke away she searched his face for some sort of negative reaction before pulling him back into the room nudging the door shut with her foot. When Ariadne made him sit on the edge of her bed he seemed a little surprised that this was happening at all.

"Ariadne, I-" he started but she put a finger to his lips.

"Shut up," she replied before climbing on his lab straddling his waist and leaning in close her arms around his neck. "Why did you do it?" Ariadne asked when they were inches apart.

"Why did I do what?" Arthur asked and she felt his warm hands on her hips.

"You took the bullet for me, you protected me in that world, and you didn't have to. You could have looked out for yourself but you protected me even though you knew that was what they wanted," she ran her fingers through his long hair and he gave her a warm smile.

"Because you're worth dying for," Arthur replied and Ariadne could not hide her smile as their lips met.

_Someone to die for  
Someone to fall into when the world goes dark  
Someone to die for  
Someone to tear a hole in this endless night  
Someone like you_


End file.
